Asparagus

Need a little help here. What I want to do is make a long trough, above gro
und, deep enough for asparagus to continue to grow for at least 10 years. D
on't know a lot about the plant other than it taste good and is very good f
or you. They say 2 years till the first harvest.
So this is what I'm looking for:
1. Width and depth of the trough
1a.Material, i.e. what type of wood that will not be adverse to the plant
2. Soil composition, sand, clay, moss
3. Full drainage or little drainage
4. Fertilizer numbers, 1st in the beginning, then after the
foliage development stalk numbers i.e.10-5-20
5. And if someone knows where to buy the best starter plants
Thank you in advance
Location: North Texas 30 mi from Oklahoma, north of Dallas

reasonably good drainage, fairly high level of
organic matter, sandy loam, spacing as recommended by
package, i may plant a few inches deeper than the
package recommends in an arid climate with hot summers
and also make sure to top dress the area with more
organic materials at the end of each season to help
hold the soil moisture in and to keep the OM levels
high.
there are new varieties available that have an
earlier growing cycle, you may want to find some of
these to add along with others to have an extended
harvest.
songbird

I still remember walking the fence lines and ditches on m y grandfather's
farm in the spring picking Asparagus . Didn't like it then , and don't now .
I tell my wife that I'll cook it for her if she'll cook liver for me ... she
refuses ! I mean , just because it makes her nauseus ...

I'm with you, will eat asparagus occasionally but have always liked
liver, no matter what sort of critter it came out of. Hard to even find
liver in the Houston area unless you can find a real butcher shop, which
I just ran across one. Will be going back for liver soon. My wife likes
asparagus and liver and pretty much will eat anything. As the middle
child of five, two older brothers and two younger sisters, with the two
boys being very large, she had to scrap for her food at the table.
Wife grew up in rural Maryland and picked wild asparagus along the creek
side.
Back in the sixties, when we were a young married couple I bought all of
our meat of any kind from a local butcher that I had grown up with. Also
took the calves we raised to him for butchering and packaging. Hard to
find those types of butchers anymore.
Discovered today that both of the grow light bulbs were defunct, just
ordered a new one online. Getting close to seed starting time.
George

I've already got san marzano tomatoes , basil and oregano sprouting .
Tomorrow I'll be fabricating mounts and hanging my brandynew grow light
fixture over the shelf the trays are on . Time to fill those half-TP-tubes
with soil and get some marigolds started . And more herbs and a few
bee-friendly varieties .

George , this works so well it'll freak you out . By the time you need a
bigger pot for the seedling , the roots are coming out the bottom and the
lower 2/3rds of the tube have mostly decomposed . All ya gots down there is
a big ol' root ball . I have a hundred 4" round plastic pots waiting ... and
big bag of potting soil .
BTW , don't let them go too long , you'll have a morass of intertwined
roots down there , needing scissors to part them - DAMHIKT .

You missed some attributions there , Dave . I don't know how much fresher
it can get , from the farm to the table was like under a couple of hours .
Not quite as good as slicing a still-sun-warm tomato onto your BLT , but
pretty close .
Besides , it makes my pee smell funny .

Why a trough above ground? It has long roots and unless it can grow down
into the soil you will restrict growth considerably unless your trough is
enormous. If you must have a trough consider concrete blocks and galvanised
iron walls. It should be deep, this isnt a lettuce. The area depends on
how many plants you want to grow which depends on how much you like
asparagus. I would say about a square metre (yard) per person if you like
it but more if you really like it.
In any case make sure it is in full sun.
If you have never eaten it really fresh be prepared to be wowed and to
increase the amount you expect to need.

Asparagus is not fussy about the heaviness of the soil but it is a heavy
feeder so you will need plenty of manure and orgainc matter and to top it up
annually with chicken manure or similar. Soils that are moderately heavy
with some clay are easier to keep fertile than very sandy soils.

Not very fussy. I have it growing in a moderately heavy silt. You are not
going to grow any vegetable well in very heavy (all clay) or very light (all
sand) soil.

Not that fussy provided the soil is kept fertile.

It probably doesn't matter, go to the nearest place to you. This is an
international forum so it is not a good place to get that kind of advice.
BTW starting from crowns is not obligatory, if you start from seed it will
take a year longer to get into production but cost much less. Ask around if
any friends or neighbours grow it, the chances are their garden has
seedlings here and there, especially under shrubs. Small birds eat the
berries and then poop around the garden sowing the seeds in little packets
of fertilser. Seedlings transplant well at any time of year, full sized
plants only when dormant crowns.

Asparagus plants grow a new crown every year on top of the previous
year's crown. So every year they are 1-2 inches closer to the top of the
soil. I have planted them 18 inches deep, sometimes. They began to crown
on top of the soil in about 10 years.
There is no reason for using a trough. Just dig a deep hole. Put in some
compost and mound it up into a cone shape and put the plant crown over
the cone of compost.
The like manure. Dress the top with a bunch every year and water it in.
Asparagus plants come in male and female. Only the female will have
berries. They also make the nicest looking stems. Some of the male
plants have weird shaped stems. They all taste the same.
You can also peel the older stems and they will cook just like the young
tender ones.
Paul

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